April 2013

April 30, 2013

What better way to cap off a fairly awful month for the Washington Nationals than another beating at the hands of the Braves? Maybe Bryce Harper assisting Tim Hudson's fifth inning home run? -- nearly robbed it, but the ball bounced off his glove and went over the wall. Well, at least Bryce didn't pull a Jose Canseco. Is it May yet?

"Well that was a tough one, but the main thing, I was a little concerned about Strasburg. He always has a tendency to shake his right arm, and him being wild... I talked to Cat and...'have you talked to him?' ...because he doesn't look right to me. ...He was in there with the doctor. He's got a little tightness, I think in his forearm. So they're gonna put him on some medication, then he'll get a report from the doctor. But that was a bad thing in the game. Still throwing good, but his command was way off, so I knew something was wrong. He didn't complain about anything, but he was irritable. ...

April 27, 2013

Unfortunately, Ken Rosenthal was not on the receiving end of a Gatorade shower (à la Julie Alexandria) during his postgame interview with Bryce Harper and Denard Span on Saturday at Nationals Park. Video above. Key takeaways include:

Harper on Denard Span:"Today was his day, he played unbelievable out there and he saved the game for us."

Span on rating the degree of difficulty of his two spectacular catches:"I think the second one was a little harder. I had to actually run hard for it and go get it in the gap."

Span on Bryce Harper:"Special. Similar to what I saw with Joe Mauer when I played with him in '09 when he won the MVP. Just something special coming to the field every day and watching him perform."

"I’m just throwing strikes and trying to get ahead of guys and not trying to get deep in the counts and letting them put the ball in play. I don’t care about strikeouts. I don’t want to walk anyone." (Jordan Zimmermann, via Washington Post, 4/27/2013)

Well, look at that, the Nats broke out offensively last night against the Reds! Meanwhile, the one guy who has been immune to the early season offensive woes was at it again. Up above, video of Bryce Harper's solo shot Thursday night, which gave the Nats a much-needed 3-0 lead in the third inning and help take the pressure off. Here's a screencap of the poor baseball rolling down the little hill in center after crashing to earth (around the 14 second mark of the video clip above):